The Natural History of Unicorns - Softcover

Lavers, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060874155 ISBN 13: 9780060874155

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2010

Synopsis

"Lavers keeps his intellectual detective story passionate and suspenseful."
-- Washington Post Book World

From Biblical stories about virgins to adventures with Harry Potter, unicorns have enchanted people for millennia. In the endlessly fascinating The Natural History of Unicorns, author Chris Lavers ingeniously traces the legend of this mysterious creature to the real people, places, and animals that have influenced its story.

About this title

Review:

"Intriguing. .The history of a non-existent animal is, by definition, a series of diversions from actuality, and, by reversing that trajectory, Lavers' book takes us to some fascinating places." -- Financial Times

"Whimsical, scholarly and continually absorbing." -- The Spectator

"The origin of the species and its later fame told in lore and legend is cleverly told."--The Times (London)

"In this lively survey, Lavers explores the roots and the evolution of Ctesias' elusive beast... Lavers capably balances tales of individual enthusiasts with broader cultural considerations to show how the unicorn's 'connections with our myth-making reveal much about our engagement with the natural world.'"--The New Yorker

"A mind opening work of intricate scholarship. If unicorns do exist I hope they never catch one. A great read that will grace my library."--Professor David Bellamy

"Intriguing. ...The history of a non-existent animal is, by definition, a series of diversions from actuality, and, by reversing that trajectory, Lavers' book takes us to some fascinating places."--Financial Times

"Chris Lavers traces our fascination with the idea of a one-horned horse back 2,000 years in this scholarly history of unicorns ... The history of the unicorn shows human beings at our imaginative best and our manipulative worst."--Daily Telegraph (London)

"Lively, compelling, full of anecdote, wry scepticism and an honest humility about the things it is simply impossible for us to know for certain. . . . The book, like its subject, is not quite one thing nor another, but a fascinating hybrid."--The Guardian

"A vivid and highly readable trek following the trail of this elusive beast."--Booklist

"Chris Lavers has done it again. A fascinating, intelligent and unusual book. From the first page I was completely hooked."--Pat Shipman, author of Femme Fatale

Book Description:

'Very engaging ... and we fall in with some fascinating companions, both human and animal, along the way' - Evening Standard

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0060874155
• ISBN 13: 9780060874155
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272